


Bring Me the End, I Will Make a New Beginning

by notcool



Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Angst, Angst and Fluff, Apocalypse, For the moment at least, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Janus is a good friend, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychic Abilities, Remus being Remus, Slow Build, majority angst tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:10:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcool/pseuds/notcool
Summary: The end of the world blindsides everyone, and leaves survivors scattered and confused. A trio of childhood lovebirds, a tiny crime ring, a classy farm boy and a mostly-sane psychiatrist all end up in the same place at the same time.When the world is in chaos, you don't exactly have your pick of a team. One way or another, they'll have to learn to work together.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton, Creativity | Roman & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Eventually - Relationship, LAMP - Relationship, Logic | Logan Sanders & Dr. Emile Picani, Sleep | Remy Sanders & Everyone, also eventually - Relationship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. A World on Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue where this concept came from but here we are. Have fun, kids

_ “And then, a strangely comforting thought trickled through me—I had nothing, so I could do anything now. Anything I wanted. I had nothing left to lose.” _

_ \- Rachel Ward, Numbers _

\-------

It had been nearly a year since the three of them had been in the same room, and Patton was practically giddy with excitement.

They'd grown up on the same street, went to school together, done everything together. 

So to have them now, Logan tucked against his left side, tie askew, eyes narrowed at the book in his hands, and Roman on his right, wrapped up in a bright blue throw with even brighter eyes glued to the television screen, as if they were still in high-school, happily wasting away a saturday night together instead of studying for a test... Patton couldn't have been happier.

They had gone their different ways, but always came back for New Years' at the very least. 

Logan, all prestigious as one of the youngest physicists ever hired by NASA. Roman, a songwriter whose name was beginning to be known in bigger circles, being hired by larger and larger names to work with on lyrics and music composition. 

But here they both were, no matter how far away they may have gone. Here they were, back in their hometown in rural east Florida. Back with Patton.

Grinning, Patton slung his arms around them, hugging them closer. "I missed you guys."

Roman shot him a blinding smile, and Logan made a soft humming noise, shifting a bit to nuzzle closer into Patton's shoulder, though still free enough to keep sight of his book.

The evening was practically perfect, in Patton's opinion. The movie ended sometime around eleven, and Logan had set aside his book and fallen asleep sometime before then. 

Roman fumbled for the remote and turned off the tv, leaving only the light filtering in from the kitchen to see by. He looked to Patton, who was happily running his hands through a sleeping Logan's hair, and gave a little snort. "Guess we're sleeping on the couch tonight?"

Patton stifled a giggle. "Shush, you'll wake him up!" He whispered, nudging Roman playfully with his head.

"Well, we don't want that, do we?" Roman chuckled, carefully untangling himself from the fluffy blue throw so he could unfurl it to wrap around all three of them. "Night, Patton."

"Night Roman."

Patton wasn't sure what woke him hours later, as it didn't seem as though either of his friends had moved much, and it was far from morning. 

Roman was snoring softly on his shoulder, and Logan was completely in both their laps now, a still hand curled around the edge of Patton's shirt.

It was cute, and nearly perfect, but something was off, and Patton couldn't for the life of him figure out... oh.

Everything was trembling ever so slightly, and the sensation was slowly growing stronger.

Was... was this an earthquake? Since when did they have earthquakes? Patton had lived in this town his whole life and had no memory of an earthquake, even a small one.

He tensed, the world only trembling worse with each second.

Roman started awake, blinking frantically in the dim light as he took in his surroundings. "Patton?" His voice was high and uneven, slightly panicked but obviously not entirely awake either. "What's-"

Logan snapped his eyes open with a gasp, his hand clenching into a fist around the hem of Patton's shirt. At first he was calm enough, but upon taking in Patton and Roman's faces above him his expression turned confused. "What are you...?" The shaking faded out, but in less than a moment was back with a sickening echo that made the colour drain from everyone's faces as orange flashed through the curtains.

This was no earthquake. That... that was an explosion.

The three of them were scrambling to stand from their tangle, Logan tripping over the coffee table and grabbing at Patton's shoulder while Patton and Roman stumbled to unsnake the blanket from around their legs.

The curtains flashed, a bit duller this time but no less frightening. Another deep, resounding echo sent the ground trembling.

"Wh-what's happening?" Roman cried, definitely awake now.

No one knew. Patton could feel his stomach twisting up into knots.

"Damnit." Logan hissed, shoving the coffee table from his path and stumbling into the kitchen to snatch his car keys off the counter. "Florida! I hate the coast!"

"What?" Patton followed him, Roman at his heels, both leaning on the wall, confused and scared and not wanting to get too separated from the rest of their little family. "What does Florida have to do with- with this?"

"Coastal areas." Logan dropped to the ground, digging frantically through the cupboards under the sink. "No basements. We can't get underground. Which means we need to get as far away as we can - now!"

"What-"

The house shook with a strike of unnatural thunder, the hot flash through the windows momentarily blinding. 

"Yep!" Roman squeaked, grabbing Patton's arm and following Logan when he jumped to his feet with something in his hands and started for the side door. "Away sounds good!"

Logan unbolted the door and shoved it open, and they all froze.

Patton's house was roughly on the edge of town, and it was probably for the best. The core of the town was alight with an angry orange glow, pulsating with a vengeance that had Patton's heart in his throat. For a moment it seemed to be snowing, but it didn't take any of them long to realize that the flakes swirling in the unnatural wind around were ashes.

"C-car." Logan finally choked, taking an almost robotic step forward. "Car. Now."

The light encasing the town center spiked high, sending a wave of heat rolling all the way to Patton's porch. 

They managed to unfreeze, very nearly tumbling down the short set of steps as they ran for Logan's small car at the end of the driveway.

Logan pushed his keys into Roman's hands and rounded to the passenger seat himself, nudging a shell-shocked Patton into the backseat as he went.

"Logan-what?" Roman stared.

"Drive!" Logan ordered, forgoing his seatbelt in favor of rifling through the glove box. He paused when Roman didn't move to get in the car. "Roman! Drive!"

"Right!" Roman clambered into the driver's seat, hands shaking as he jammed the keys into the ignition and jerked the car into reverse. He swung them out of the driveway, putting the car in drive and just sitting a moment, face completely void of its proper rosy colour. "Wh-where-"

"Out of town!" Logan had unearthed a flip phone from the depths of the glove box and was fumbling to plug it into the charger on the console. "Just- out!"

"Out." Roman glanced back to Patton, who looked as sickly as he felt, bangs sticking to his forehead with sweat and wide eyes glassy with fearful tears. "...Out."

"Yes!" Logan was tapping at the phone, trying to get it to turn on. "Out! Now, Roman!"

"Right!" Roman grasped the steering wheel with deathly-white hands, swallowing thickly as he blinked his own tears away enough to see the road ahead.

"Roman!"

The car shot forward with a mechanical shriek. In seconds they were off of Patton's side road, Roman completely missing the turn and taking out a row of unkempt hedges before steadying them on the main road.

Roman could hear the clack of metal as Patton tried to get his seat belt on, and distantly thinks he should probably try and get his own on too, but his mind is too clouded, too focused on their climbing speed, on keeping them on the road as they sped at an angle away from town.

Logan had a hand braced against the dash to keep himself from sliding out of his seat, growling under his breath as he stabbed at the phone's buttons, only receiving a dull screen with an image of a drained battery.

"Do either of you have a phone on you?"

Patton shook his head meekly, and Roman managed to cough out what he hoped was close enough to the word "no" to be an answer.

"Damnit." Logan leaned to look out his window back at the town shrinking in the distance. "We need to find somewhere with a landline. Dr. Emile will know what's happened, can tell us where to go, he can-can..."

"Landline." Roman racked his memory for what few houses were along this increasingly rural country road, but couldn't concentrate enough. 

"The Somnum's place." Patton offered, voice shaking a bit. "They've got a landline. A-and it's far out- is it far enough? Is-is?"

Logan only took a moment to unearth the name from the catalog of his memories. "Yes. The Somnum house should be a safe distance."

Roman nodded weakly, his mind generously supplying him with the information to seek out the right roads. "Somnum." He muttered, urging the small car faster still now that he could picture a destination. "Somnum..."

\------

It was nearly one in the morning, and Virgil did not have patience for the over-eccentric man that had practically skipped into the back room of the bookstore. When he turned and saw the man's ridiculous outfit, he felt another prick of annoyance at the whole thing.

"What part of stealth do you not get, Remus?"

The man threw a dramatic hand over his heart, gasping in mock offense. "Me! What ever are you talking about! I am the epitome of stealth!"

Virgil glanced between the flamboyant neon-green vest and Remus' face, raising an eyebrow. "Are you now?"

"Of course!" Remus batted his eyes. "It's even on my resume - Remus Duke, unmatched genius, sexiest criminal in all the states, epitome of stealth."

Virgil rolled his eyes, looking back to the wires he was twisting together. "Great resume. If you wanna get hired as a clown."

"Now Virgil," Remus plopped into a chair across the small room, kicking his feet up onto the nearest stack of books. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd think you were trying to insult me!"

Virgil turned back to him just long enough to stick his tongue out at the frivolous thief, quickly returning his attention to his work.

The wooden door beside Remus opened, and Janus' head poked through. He cast Remus a frown, his glass left eye following his regular eye just slightly out of sync enough to be unnerving. When he spoke, his voice was a bit raspy, but still soft. "How much longer do you need, Virgil?"

Virgil shrugged, not bothering to turn around. "Three hours, give or take."

Janus hummed and disappeared back into the store, door clicking softly behind him.

Virgil had exactly four minutes and twenty-three seconds of peace before Remus spoke again, which, given it was in fact Remus, was actually a pretty good amount of time.

"You really need to update your wardrobe, Virgil. You look like an angsty high-school drug dealer."

Virgil bit his lip. "And you look like a black market circus put through a garbage disposal."

"Why thank you!" 

Two minutes and fifteen seconds.

"Virgil!"

Virgil groaned as the wire he'd been carefully stripping fumbled out of his fingers and across the little table. "What?"

"Did you know that if you drop a raisin in a glass of champagne it will just keep bouncing from the top to the bottom endlessly?"

Virgil turned to level Remus with an unimpressed look. "Are you back on one of your weird facts escapades?"

Remus didn't bother looking up from where he was scrolling through his phone. "Oh, the man who invented the Pringles can was cremated - and guess what his ashes were buried in!"

Virgil resisted the urge to rub his eyes, knowing it would only encourage the headache building behind them. "A Pringles can?" He said dryly.

"Bingo!" He scrolled some more. "Grapes explode when you microwave them. Well, I already knew that! Come on, something interesting!"

"After your little science experiment last month, I don't think any of us will ever forget that." Virgil turned back to his work, reaching across the table to collect the escaped wire. "I'm trying to work, Remus. Can't you go bother Janus?"

Remus sighed dramatically, but after a minute did hop up from his seat. "I suppose I could." He opened the door and strode out, a sing-song, "bye, Virgie!" cut off halfway through as the door swung back shut.

Virgil shook his head and looked back to the half-constructed explosive in his hands.

Why were his hands shaking all of a sudden? No, not just his hands. His arms, the table... the whole building.

Since when did they have earthquakes around here?

Virgil tossed his work aside, stumbling to his feet and knocking over his stool in the process.

It stopped.

Virgil was just about to consider that he'd imagined the whole thing in his sleep-deprived state when it happened again - much larger than the last time.

And if the deep echo rippling through the ground told him anything, it's that this was anything but an earthquake.

It was an explosion.

The door to the store flew back open, and Remus stumbled through, pushed by a startled but determined-looking Janus.

"Get to the van." He ordered, voice more level than Virgil had ever heard it since the accident that left Janus' vocal cords damaged. "Now!"

All three of them moved, Virgil snatching his messenger bag off the ground just as Janus grabbed his sleeve on his way to the back door, still shoving Remus ahead of him.

They burst into the alley to find the night world tinged orange, black and white flakes swirling in an unnatural wind.

"Van!" Janus reminded harshly, giving them both a shove.

They scrambled to the end of the alley, Janus shoving his keys into the lock to let them in. Virgil and Remus more or less fell into the back workspace as Janus jumped in the drivers' seat and jammed the keys in the ignition.

Virgil barely managed to clamber to his knees and pull the side door shut before Janus was driving, swerving out of the alley at not only a far-from legal speed, but also decidedly the wrong way down the one-way street.

Another low echo. The world flashed a brighter orange. The ash grew only thicker in the air.

Virgil grabbed the back of Janus' seat, dragging himself up so he could see out the windshield, and saw Remus doing the same to the passenger seat.

People were running out of buildings, frantic to get into their vehicles and get away from whatever this was. The streets would surely be a panicked mess in just minutes.

"The hell is going on?" Virgil rasped, breath caught in his throat.

No one answered.

Remus' fingers were digging into the thin fabric of the passenger seat, his nails scraping fraying threads loose as he leaned forward to look up and out of the windshield, large, shell-shocked eyes flickering a fiery orange as they reflected the nightmarish world around.

Virgil dropped to his knees, pulling himself between the driver and passenger seats. Janus had cut across the deserted middle-school parking lot to the unkempt field on the other side, and was now swerving onto the back road out of town, tires screeching out as they were plowed through the rampant weeds back onto asphalt.

The orange glare of destruction seemed to be coming from behind them now. Janus pressed his foot to the floor, the old engine growling as he pushed the van to climb to its maximum speed. "Buckle in."

Virgil and Remus only blinked.

"Oi!" Janus barked, letting go of the wheel with one hand to swipe blindly in Virgil's direction. "Buckle in! Both of you!"

Virgil and Remus made short, startled eye contact before scrambling - Virgil into the passenger seat and Remus to the modified seat at the back of the van.

As soon as Virgil was strapped in, Janus reached for his own seatbelt with an uncoordinated hand, not looking away from the road, peripheral vision a lost cause with the belt being on his left. He managed to finally grasp the strap, jerking it across his body and holding it out towards Virgil as best he could while keeping his right hand steady on the wheel.

It was a gesture Virgil was familiar enough with, and after a moment of hesitation he reached to take the strap from Janus' gloved hand, fumbling to click the buckle into its place at Janus' hip.

"Guys!" Remus shouted from the back. "We have a problem!"

Janus growled, momentarily baring his teeth like an angry wolf. "What ever gave you that impression!"

"No, it's bad!" Remus was unbuckling and stumbling back to the front of the van. "You need to see this Jan!"

"Remus!" Janus practically hissed when Remus' hand grasped at his shoulder. "Get back in your seat!"

"Jan!" Remus was waving his phone next to Janus' head. "We can't get on the interstate! Get off this road!"

Janus glanced to the rear-view mirror, where the headlights of fleeing citizens were starting to appear in the distance. "It's the fastest way out of the area, Remus! What would you have me do?"

"I don't know!" Remus cried. "Just not the interstate!" He shoved his phone at Virgil. "Tell him Virge! Tell him!"

Virgil's fingers shook as he did his best to hold the small device, his vision swimming and in out focus as he tried his best to read the words on Remus' screen. "Oh god."

"Virge! Tell him!"

"Janus- don't-don't-" Virgil struggled to swallow. "Do what Remus said. We can-we- we need to get away from everything. Out-out in the country or something. We can't-we can't..."

Remus snatched his phone back, shoving it into his pocket. "Jan!"

Janus gave them each a glance. Virgil's eyes were shining with frightened tears, his whole body shaking. Remus was pale and unblinking, staring at him like his life depended on it... and, it probably did.

It was a feeling Janus was well used to, but one that was somehow so foregin in this situation. He was their leader. Their protector. They lived a dangerous life and he was the main barrier between them and the consequences of who they were.

But this... this was different. The world was literally collapsing around them. Janus could defend them from society. From other humans. But the environment... what was he supposed to do?

The others were still looking at him. Expecting him to defend them, to make the right call, like he always did, like they always knew he would. 

The ramp to the interstate was three miles ahead on the right.

Janus tightened his already painful grip on the steering wheel, and spun them to the left at the next intersection.

Remus' and Virgil's sighs of relief were audible even over the roar of the old engine, Virgil visibly crumpling down in his seat, Remus dropping to his knees and leaning against the back of Janus' seat.

Lights were flashing past in the rear-view mirror, cars zipping towards the interstate back across the main road.

There was a knot in Janus' chest as they sped past ragged fields, the fiery glow of the town fluctuating in the distance as they slowly angled away from it, out into the middle of nowhere.

There was no explanation for what was happening, and honestly Janus had no clue what he was going to do about it. Where they were going to go. But Virgil was in the passenger seat and Remus kneeling on the van floor at his back, and they were safe...

And he would do whatever he had to do to make sure they stayed that way.


	2. The Somnum House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil has a breakdown, Logan needs to make a call, and Remy is just trying to keep his grandma from shooting everyone

"Now what?"

"You tell me, Remus! You're the one who wanted us off main."

"Just 'cause I know where we aren't doesn't mean I have the slightest idea where we are!" Remus defended, eyes narrowed out the windshield as he tried to catch sight of anything familiar - unfortunately, grass had a tendency to look the same on one flat stretch as it did on another, and the rows of identical pines were hardly any more helpful.

Virgil was pale and shaking in the passenger seat, hugging his stomach and pressing his head against his window, no more of an assistance than the trees outside.

"Virge!" Remus reached over to shake the shoulder of the oversized hoodie. "Virge, you're the only one who's any good with directions outside town. Where the hell are we?"

Virgil groaned, cracking open an eye and blearily taking in the road ahead.

Janus had slowed to a more reasonable speed once the glow of flames had receded from view, and the dirt roads they passed were actually visible as opposed to being vague blurs in the rear-view.

"We're... um..." Virgil winced, licking his lips distastefully. "We could..." He was searching, but his fuzzy brain would only give him a single location anywhere remotely close to their present point. It was better than nothing, he supposed.

He needed to get out of the van - the storm of anxiety stirring inside him was not at all appreciative of the rough country road.

"You got anything, Virgil?" Janus' voice was softer than Remus, calmer, but it was obvious that he was only better at separating his voice from his emotion - his single eye, glancing between Virgil and the road, was bright with fear every bit as potent as the vice that clamped down on Virgil's own chest.

"I..." Virgil blinked, trying to connect his thoughts to matching words. "Right. Go right."

"When?"

"Uh... there."

"...There?"

"That road?" Remus pointed at the worn road coming up on the right.

"I... yeah, that one."

Janus slammed on the brakes to keep from going past the road, and Virgil's stomach lurched. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead back against the cold glass of the passenger window.

The van turned off the unmaintained asphalt and onto the dusty gravel road. The van continued forward, but much slower now.

"Where does this go Virgil?" Janus asked.

Virgil groaned, not offering anything intelligible.

"Virgie?" Remus shook Virgil's shoulder, gentler this time, looking genuinely concerned. "Virgie, where are we going?"

In a flash of panicked movement Virgil shoved Remus' hand away, fingers scrabbling at the buckle to his seatbelt. Janus barely got the van stopped before Virgil was opening and falling out the passenger door, gasping a retching.

Remus blinked in shock, for a moment sitting perfectly still. "Oh, oh." He leaned to peer out the open door. "Oh dear. Um. Virge? Are you alright?"

"No, he's not alright." Janus clicked off his own seat belt and left the drivers' seat, leaving the keys in the ignition so that the headlights would give them light. He walked around to Virgil's side, crouching a few feet away and murmuring softly.

Well, Remus wasn't doing anyone any good sitting there staring. He grasped the handle to the side door and yanked at it, metal scraping as the door slid into open position. He hopped out and, after a moment of standing there confused, crouched opposite Janus, staying silent but hoping he was comforting in some way at least.

Janus was so quiet it was a mystery how Virgil even heard him over his panting, but every once in a while Janus would pause, and Virgil would nod or shake his head ever so slightly in return.

After a few minutes Janus held out his arm, and Virgil weakly pulled himself around the mess to collapse into Janus' waiting embrace, pale and sweating.

"He gonna be okay?" Remus whispered, edging closer warily. 

Janus frowned, adjusting the nearly limp body in his arms. "He was already sleep-deprived and now he's dehydrated."

Remus took that as his cue to search the van for some kind of drink, muttering as much before standing and hopping back in the side door of the van.

The back of the van was distressingly bare, the toolboxes yielding nothing but stray tools and coils of wire. One had a cardboard box of a dozen or so of Virgil's signature mini-explosives - not helpful at present, but he took mental note of the resource before closing that box as well.

He poked his head back out of the van. "I got nothin' Jan."

Janus' frown deepened. He craned his neck to look at the scraggly trees that surrounded them, his lone eye narrowed in determination. "Remus." He said finally. "Is that a light or is my eye being odd again?"

Remus followed the finger Janus raised through the branches. It was small and flickering, but definitely a light. "...Yeah. A candle maybe? It looks kinda weird."

"Well candles don't light themselves." Janus nodded towards the light. "It doesn't look too far. Go see who you can pester for some water."

"Uh..." Remus stepped out of the van, but only stood there. "You sure that's the best idea Jan? You know I'm not really a uh... people person."

Janus leveled him with a tired and severely unimpressed look.

"Right." Remus snapped his fingers a bit anxiously, starting into the trees. "I'll uh... get some water."

\-------

Remy Somnum would have probably slept through the slight tremors without even knowing they were there, but having a bedroom over the family stables stole away any possibility of doing just that.

The horses were whinnying and pacing in distress, the lone cow mooing low and long from her own stall, refusing to let Remy sleep even with his pillow pressed over his head.

With a groan he dragged himself out of the comfort of his covers, pawing blindly under the edge of his bed until his fingers caught onto his boots, pulling them out so he could shove his feet into them.

Still only half-awake Remy dragged his feet across the floor out of his room, slapping absently at the stairs' light switch through a yawn. His hand found it, and he heard the soft click of the plastic flipping up, but the staircase remained in darkness.

"Damn power's out again." Remy returned to his room, poking his hands into different drawers in his desk until he felt the smooth plastic of his flashlight in his palm. 

He clicked it on, and the bulb flickered, but overall stayed on and wasn't too dull to be of use.

Once he'd calmed the animals he'd have to make sure the generator had kicked in for the appliances - Grandma Somnum would kill him if he let the meat in her freezer go bad.

Down the stairs into the house, turn and down the stairs into the mud room, out the door into the stables.

The ground was still trembling, but it was slight, distant, and didn't appear to be getting worse - not that the livestock cared much for this reasoning. Even the barn cat was meowing disapprovingly from her perch up in the rafters.

"Guys, come on." Remy crossed to the nearest stall where a pale pinto was stretching her neck out as if he might save her. "Guys, I can't tell the earth what to do. You'll be okay, alright?"

The pinto, nor any of the other frantic eyes on him, seemed to believe a word of it.

Remy sighed, stroking the pinto's nose as he swept his light over the stables, just in case anything had been damaged. The tack shelves were a bit wobbly, but they were always like that, so he determined that nothing was out too out of place.

He decided he would stay until the earth stilled, just to help keep the animals calm. But the minutes passed, and the more a bad feeling was settling in the bottom of Remy's stomach. 

He'd been in several small earthquakes while at college in up Massachusetts, but the rumbling was deeper somehow, coming in waves like a low growl where this came in sharp jolts, as though a giant were stomping around nearby. And it just... kept... going...

Something was definitely wrong.

Remy gave the pinto a last pat and went back through the door into the house, finding Grandma Somnum stumbling into the living room with a candle in her wrinkled hands and a scowl deep set on her face.

"Grandma!" Remy couldn't help but chew his lip, knowing that if she was up she felt something was off too. "Do you know what's going on? The livestock's up in arms about all this shaking and nothing will calm them."

Grandma somehow scowled deeper, setting her candle on the coffee table and bending to pull the emergency candle box from underneath the couch. "I dunno, boy. Why don't you go get that phone of yours and see if those news peoples have anything to say?"

"I-yes ma'am." Remy bounded back up to his room, setting his flashlight on his nightstand so he could rifle through the mess of blankets on his bed until his phone finally fell out of the folds.

He tapped on the screen, cringing at the bright white that stabbed at his eyes. But as soon as he could squint through the pain he unlocked the phone and pulled up the local news site.

No news of anything since eight pm.

Well, Grandma didn't have to have official information, did she? Remy opened twitter, the app taking far longer than he'd have liked to load, but when it did...

"What..." He scrolled, heart beginning to pound. "Oh... oh god. Oh god oh god oh god..."

"Remy?" Grandma was at the top of the stairs, peering in with a scowl and fresh candlestick. "What are you doddling about for? I'm not getting any younger here!"

Remy blinked fiercely, trying to recall how long he'd been standing there, staring at... at...

"Rem?" Grandma shuffled into the room, brows furrowed. "What you cryin' about, boy?"

Her hand was on his shoulder and Remy jumped slightly, not quite remembering her crossing to him. His phone screen had long faded to black with lack of interaction, but he still couldn't tear his eyes away from it.

It was hard to breathe - why was it hard to breathe? Grandma had said he was crying. Was he crying? Maybe that was why.

"Remy!" Grandma shook his shoulder with a gruff strength that should have no business residing in that thin, bony arm. "Rem, stop your snifflin' and tell me what's goin' on!"

He could have imagined it, right? Maybe he wasn't just quite awake yet. Maybe he'd just jumbled up some letters while reading, maybe, maybe...

Shaking slightly, Remy tapped the screen, wanting so badly to confirm that he'd just seen wrong, but so scared that he would only prove his fuzzy memory right.

His finger tapped in the code without his permission, twitter reopening automatically to a flaming wasteland that there was no mistaking. 

Remy was definitely crying now, even he knew that.

Grandma leaned forward, squinting at the screen. "Rem... is that?"

Remy blinked at the photo at the bottom of the screen - a familiar street, a familiar building, terribly unfamiliar flames encasing it. What may or may not have been a collapsed human figure against the curb, obscured by swirls of black smoke. "The community center." He choked out. He moved a trembling finger to scroll further. "And Downey street... and the bookstore... and town hall..."

Grandma was staring, expression almost completely blank.

Minutes passed.

"How..." Grandma licked her lips, her own posture uncertain. "How do ya know this isn't one'a them photo doctor things? I mean... if all this stuff was explodin' and all... why would these peoples be'a posting pictures on those social medias?"

Remy tried to draw in a breath, catching on a sob. "You... you underestimate gen-Z Grandma... they'll... they post anything... they'll... they'll..."

Grandma barely had a concept of social media overall, so it was pointless to tell her that over dozens of accounts were posting these kinds of things by the second, accounts he knew good and well belonged to people, to friends he had in town. All he knew was that something terrible was happening back in town, and practically everyone he knew was smack in the middle of it.

"I... I need to go." Remy staggered around Grandma and to the stairs, vision desperately blurry with tears and a white roar in his ears. He needed to get his keys. He needed to get to town. He needed to help. He needed... he needed...

"You ain't goin' nowhere, boy." Grandma had somehow kept pace with him downstairs to the kitchen table, snatching his keys from the tabletop as he reached for them. "I ain't lettin' you walk into the hell in those photos!"

"Gran... I..." Remy reached for the keys, but she held them further away, eyes narrowed. "Grandma please... I need to help... I can't just..."

"Just what?" Grandma snapped. "Just not go get your stupid self killed? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, boy. Ain't neither one of us goin' anywhere near town until we know what's goin' on out there!"

"Gran-"

There was a screeching of tires outside, and the livestock screamed chaos all over again.

Remy ran to the window, swiping at his eyes so parting the blinds to see the unfamiliar little car that had skidded to a halt somewhat-sideways in the gravel drive.

He jumped at the sound of Grandma loading the rifle behind him.

"Grandma!" He hissed. "We can't just shoot people!"

"Why not?" Grandma marched to the door, unbolting it and flinging it open in an impressively fluid motion, rifle on her shoulder and trained at the opening car doors as she stepped onto the porch.

"Grandma!" Remy scrambled after, careful to stay behind her as he tried to think of something, anything to say that would convince her not to just shoot at this random car.

It was too dark for him to recognize the two that got out of the front properly, but the glistening curls that peeked out of the backseat were unmistakable - he'd practically thought himself in love with that boy for half of their eighth-grade year, and while that particular feeling was gone, there was still no denying the man was beautiful.

"Grandma, put down the gun!" He pawed at her shoulder, eyes pleading. "It's Patton!"

"Who?"

"Patton! Uh- Patton! The the- Amandi! Dr. Patton Amandi, remember?"

"The veterinarian?" Grandma wrinkled her nose at the three men, who had frozen in place upon seeing the firearm. "What the hell... ugh. The other two? You know them?"

It had been a few years, and it was rather shadowed, but the way Patton clung to the nearest one's arm confirmed that there was only one possible answer. "That's-that's Logan and Roman. They're-they're friends, I swear. Please put the rifle down, Grandma."

Grandma still didn't look happy, but she lowered the weapon a bit, still threatening, but not directly aimed at anyone for the moment. "What are you boys doin' here? Don't ya know it's two in the mornin'?"

"Please, Mrs. Somnum!" Patton took a careful step to stand in front of Logn rather than behind him, though he never released his frightened hold of the other's arm. "The-the town is in chaos! Something terrible has happened and we-we're not sure what exactly but there's just so-so much..."

"We need to make a call." Logan said, not looking away from Grandma as he ushered a near-sobbing Patton to lean into his chest. "Our phones were left behind in our haste. May we use your phone?"

Quiet.

"...Please?" Roman added, his voice a bit higher than Remy remembered. Maybe it was just the tinge of panic that brought it up.

Grandma, slowly, somehow still threateningly, lowered her rifle the rest of the way, letting it rest vertical against her hip. "Power's out here. Try somewhere else."

"Grandma!" Remy grasped at her arm, unbelieving that even she could be so cold.

She cast him a glare from the corner of her eye, finally rolling her eyes with a sigh when his large, pleading eyes won over. "Fine. Come in. You can use Remy's cell."

She marched inside, rifle dragging menacingly along the boards behind her.

The men hesitated, but at Remy's encouraging nod hurried inside. He urged them in and came in last, closing the door behind them all. Now that they were close Remy could take in the faint twinge of smoke on their clothes, and there were white flakes on their shoulders and in their hair that he was inclined to believe were ashes.

Grandma had dropped onto the couch, rifle leaning up against her as she returned to the task of lighting candles from the box at her feet and setting them in the various holders she had amassed on the coffee table.

"Well?" She barked over her shoulder after a solid minute of no one else daring to move. "Though ya needed to make a call?"

"Ah. Yes." Remy dug his phone from the depths of his pocket, unlocking it and holding it out to whoever would take it.

Logan took it with a small nod of thanks, tapping in a number and putting the phone to his ear.

It rang once. Twice.

Someone picked up.

"Emile? It's Logan."

The voice on the other end was hurried and a tad frantic, but too muffled for Remy to make out any words.

"I know, Emile." Logan cut in when the babbling continued breathlessly. "Emile. Emile! ...Emile."

More frantic chatter.

"Emile I have no idea what you're saying. Please slow down."

Logan was quiet a long time as the voice drew in a breath, and when they began to speak again it was far more composed.

"Oh," was all Logan said after a solid three minutes of listening. "I um. Yes, we are... far enough I think. We can't see the town anymore... yeah. We're at the Somnum farm. Do you think... alright, that makes sense... be careful, alright?"

He pulled the phone away from his ear, hanging up and holding it back out to Remy, expression taunt. "Dr. Emile is on his way here from Orlando. Apparently... apparently this town isn't the only place with problems."

Everyone stared at him. Even Grandma paused the candle she was lighting, wax dripping unnoticed onto the coffee table.

"Who the hell is this doctor fellow?" Grandma finally broke the quiet.

Logan coughed, patting his own chest seemingly as much for reassurance as for breathing. "Dr. Emile is a friend of mine from work... if indirectly. He is odd, but is the only person I know who would know what to do with... whatever is going on now. And if Orlando is also up in flames..."

It was quiet for a long time.

"Hello?"

All heads snapped towards the door. Grandma snatched up her rifle and was stomping out onto the porch before anyone else could unfreeze.

Remy moved first, making a high-pitched squeak and bolting after her; the others followed close behind him.

The small porch was crowded, Grandma at the top of the stairs, aiming her rifle at the man who stood in the driveway, hands halfway raised as though he hadn't fully registered he was being threatened.

He wore a glittery neon-green vest and matching tie over a silky black shirt and dress pants, his hair mussed and posture airy by nature.

Remy blinked, narrowing his eyes because surely he was mistaken - but, no. No one else within a hundred miles would ever wear such ridiculous clothes.

"Remus?" He asked, still disbelieving. "Aren't you supposed to be in jail or something?"

"Oh. The Somnum house." Remus' mustache quirked as he made a face. "Well, this is awkward, but... I uh... don't suppose I could trouble you for a bottle or two of water?"


	3. People ≠ Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Janus is somewhat paranoid, Remus and Roman are less than amused to be reunited, Remy just wants to help and Virgil's terrible sleeping habits throw a wrench in everyone's plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no clue what i'm doing anymore tbh. This idea came to me and it just keeps going i guess. Hope y'all enjoy :)

"Janus, I'm okay."

"Just wonderfully. And that is why you're collapsed in my lap, unable to lift your head."

"Janus, I swear. I'll be alright. Let's just get back in the van and actually get somewhere."

"I'm afraid we'll have to wait for Remus to return."

Virgil frowned, blinking at the inky darkness around, only broken by the soft greyish-yellow glow of the headlights. "Where'd he go?"

"There's a light through those trees." Janus nodded out into the surrounding scrub. "Seemed like a small fire of some sort. Remus went to see if he could find people."

Virgil stiffened. "He went alone? Why'd you let him go alone? It could be dangerous!"

Janus raised an eyebrow, his arm holding fast around Virgil's shoulders when he tried to climb up. "Someone had to stay with you. And as  _ charming _ as Remus is, I cannot say I have much faith in his ability to properly handle a medical situation. Besides," he offered Virgil a strained smile. "Remus can hardly be in danger. I'd be more worried for whoever he encounters."

"Oh god." Virgil shoved his face into Janus' shoulder with a groan. "We don't have time to hide a body. We really don't."

"True." Janus hummed. "With luck he will refrain from anything too uncivilized. I did only instruct him to get water, after all."

"Thanks." Virgil mumbled, voice muffled in Janus' heavy coat. "I feel so optimistic now."

Janus sighed. They sat there another few minutes, Virgil not moving from his hiding place in Janus' shoulder and Janus sitting still and only slightly tense, eyes tracing the trees around for any sign that Remus was returning. It was nearly impossible to hear anything over the insesient buzz of chirping crickets, making sight the only useful information they could gather.

"Come on," he said finally, giving Virgil's shoulder a squeeze. "Let's get you back in the van." He lifted Virgil off his lap and swung one of his friends' arms over his shoulder. "If Remus has stirred up any chaos, I suppose we should be ready to flee upon his return."

Virgil snorted bitterly, for the most part holding his own weight as they stood and took the few steps back to the open passenger door. With Virgil back in his seat and his door closed (though his window was down so he could look out better) Janus started around to the drivers' side, but then stopped, instead stepping up through the side door.

"What'cha doin'?" Virgil leaned a bit around his headrest to watch him with bloodshot eyes, voice dry and quiet.

Janus opened a panel in the (false) wall of the van, pulling out three handguns. He handed one to Virgil before replacing the panel and taking up a position at the side door with the other two.

Virgil made a face at the weapon - he'd never much cared for being a direct inflictor of violence. He made explosives and such, sure, but those were mostly used to take out walls and the doors to safes - and even then it was Remus who was planting them and setting them off. But, despite, Virgil clicked off the safety and held the gun in a carefully loose grip, resting his arm along the open window.

"Are you expecting a fight, Jan?" He asked wearily.

"It's Remus." Janus kept his gaze on the trees, for any sign of movement. "The more I think about it the more I can't help but worry he's gone and gotten us tied up in something."

"As he does." Virgil sighed, blinking in a struggle to keep his eyes open. "I uh... To be honest I'm not in the best shape Jan. You sure you want me holding a gun?"

"I thought you said you were okay?" Janus retorted. At Virgil's annoyed glance he sighed. "Sorry. Yeah, I'm sure. You know I'm a terrible shot with my left hand due to... well, I just still don't have the best vision on my right. If Remus brings back trouble I don't want you with nothing."

"Fair, I guess." Virgil was still frowning, but he kept his eyes dutifully on the trees for anything unusual.

It was nearly fifteen minutes later that Janus caught a flash of white light in the corner of his eye. At first he thought it was a trick of the light, his remaining eye playing tricks on him as it loved to do, but the way Virgil jolted upright in his seat, alert on sudden adrenaline told him it wasn't.

The small white shine was bobbing as it picked its way towards them through the scraggly forest towards them - a flashlight. A dim, occasionally flickering flashlight, but a flashlight nonetheless.

Remus didn't have a flashlight, and Janus couldn't for the life of him think why Remus would bring someone else back with him.

He bit down hard on his bottom lip, his lone eye narrowed at the light as it slowly made its way closer.

It reached the edge of the trees, not close enough to the glow of the headlights for Janus and Virgil to see them, but obviously enough for whoever it was to see  _ them _ , as they came to an abrupt stop.

Janus kept his left hand down, knowing trying to aim with it would only be a last resort, instead keeping his right arm steadily balanced on his knee, aimed at least in mostly the right direction.

He couldn't see Virgil, but heard the man's soft pants of breath and the click of the hair-trigger.

All of a sudden the flashlight stumbled back, and a familiar voice called out. 

"Ey! Janny! Put that shit down - you're scaring the kids!"

"We're the same damn age, Remus." A male voice grumbled.

Janus clenched his teeth, a hiss building in his chest, but he slowly pointed his weapon at the ground. "I said bring water, not  _ people _ !"

"Sorry!" Remus sauntered into the light, expression guilty but not nearly as much as Janus felt it should have been. "They insisted!"

The flashlight moved tentatively forward, two young men stepping wearily into view, and Janus had to truly restrain himself from hissing.

The man with the flashlight wasn't so bad. Remy Somnum had been a bubbly freshmen when Janus was a senior at the local high school, and while Janus hadn't really interacted with him since he graduated and officially slipped onto the wrong side of the law, but Remy had never been too much of a stickler for the rules at least.

It must have been Remy's house that this road led to, as Virgil didn't seem too surprised to see him.

The other man, though...

"Roman." Janus greeted stiffly. "I thought you'd moved to California."

"Janus." Remus' law-abiding dreamer of a twin brother made a face. "I thought you'd have been in prison by now."

"Funny thing about that." Janus snapped back, just as sharp. "You see, one actually has to have evidence to get a conviction."

"Uh, guys?" Remy coughed a bit forcefully. "Can we uh... not do this again?"

"Really, Remus." Roman huffed. "You've had six years to do better and you're still hanging with these two?"

"I actually kinda wanna shoot Roman now." Virgil muttered, only loud enough for Janus to catch.

Janus held back a snicker, instead opting to focus on his annoyance of this whole thing.

"Remus," Virgil said, loud enough for all of them this time. "Tell me you at least got water or something. I'd really like to stop seeing double, if you don't mind."

"Uh, yeah, sorry." Remus walked up to the van, passing a metal water bottle through the window.

Virgil clicked the safety back on and tossed his gun at his feet, vaguely shaking hands fighting to unscrew the lid. As soon as it was off he completely upturned the bottle into his mouth.

Janus turned his head enough to glance to him. "Slow down, Virge."

Virgil pulled the bottle away from his lips just long enough to utter a breathless, "Fuck you," before continuing to chug.

The adrenaline was draining out of him by the second and he was trying to take in as much as he could before he inevitably collapsed - Janus had been friends with Virgil to recognize the desperate tremor that ran through his whole body.

"So..." Remy said awkwardly. "Y'all are also fleeing death and destruction... I mean, I understand why Patton and them came here, but honestly I'm not sure what brought you guys."

"We had no clue where this road went!" Remy defended, a little too cheerful for any sane man. "Virgie said to turn. Why'd you wanna come here, Virge?"

Virgil dropped his forehead onto where his arm was laid along the open window, breathing heavily. He gave a noncommittal shrug, shoving out his other arm to wave the water bottle in vaguely Remus' direction.

Remus took it, tilting his head when he found that it was completely empty. "Virgil? You good?"

Virgil somehow found the energy to flip him off before his arm flopped back against the passenger door.

Janus rolled his eyes, carefully replacing the safety on both of his own weapons and tucking them into the back of his waistband before stepping out of the van.

"Is there a reason you two had to tag along?" He asked, although his angry glare was fixed mainly on Roman. "Or did you just feel like a field trip?"

Roman opened his mouth, but Remy quickly spoke over him, looking more than a little panicked. "Roman was just- uh, concerned! Concerned as to what Remus was doing here, so... suddenly, and-"

"We'll be going back now." Roman took Remy's arm and pulled him back, towards the edge of the light. "You be on your merry way. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't shoot us on our way out."

"Oh! Bye!" Remus gave an energetic wave.

"Wait!" Remy tugged himself free. "I- uh, Roman, sorry in advance, try not to hate me but uh - are you guys sure you don't wanna come to the house?"

Expectedly, Roman looked horrified by the possibility. 

Janus couldn't help but feel similarly. "Not that you're a bad person, Remy, but I don't see how us joining your little party would benefit anyone."

"Well it might benefit him!" Remy waved a distressed hand to the van.

Janus turned his head, heart catching in his throat when he saw how pale Virgil was, awfully still where he was slumped on the edge of the window.

Momentarily forgetting the potential threat that was Remus' twin, Janus swept to the passenger door, gently sliding his gloved hands under Virgil's head and turning him so he could see his friend's face.

Virgil's eyes fluttered but didn't open, his face seeming to have lost all colour, the paleness only more dramatic against the smudges of black eyeshadow under his eyes.

"Virgil?" He whispered, his chest tight. "Virge? Virgil, look at me."

Damnit.

Virgil was an idiot sometimes. Well, most of the time, actually, what with his erratic sleep schedule and his tendency to forget to eat or drink for hours on end, only doing so when something forcibly removed him from whatever he was working on.

While they'd been friends since high school, Virgil had been officially living with him for the past two years, and Janus had kept telling himself he would get his friend back on track eventually... it was looking as if he'd waited too long, though.

Virgil had been awake a minimum of thirty hours before they had left town, not too unusual for him, but obviously not a good mix with dehydration and the energy drain of a panic attack. There was no telling when the man had last eaten either.

They could do this, right? Grudgingly accept the Somnums’ hospitality long enough for Virgil to rest and get some proper food and drink in him. With any luck more information about what the hell was happening would come out in the meantime.

"Yes." Janus looked back to Remy, doing his best not to sound too desperate, although he was sure his expression betrayed him. "We'd like to come."


	4. Not One Bit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emile is anxious, Roman is suspicious of Janus, and Grandma Somnum makes some questionable life decisions.

Doctor Emile Picani did not like this one bit.

He’d known the end of the world was coming, of course, but that didn’t make the apocalypse any more fun.

The call from Logan was in fact a surprise. Emile had tried to, subtly, warn his friend of the impending future, but at the time it was obvious the young scientist thought he was a little crazy.

And that was okay! Emile just couldn’t live with himself if he hadn't tried, even though the odds of Logan taking him seriously were very slim.

Needless to say, as Emile drove through the chaos of the night, the burning glare of Orlando still lighting the sky behind him, his phone ringing with an unfamiliar number was hardly what he had been expecting. He would have ignored it, but the area code was the same as Logan’s, and that had him snatching the phone from its place in the cupholder.

He’d sloppily answered, not daring to breathe.

“ _Emile? It’s Logan._ ”

“Logan!” Emile cried. “Logan I’m sorry I didn’t explain better but to be honest I didn’t know exactly what would happen! Are you okay? Where are you? Are you in a city? Town? You need to get out into the country and-”

“ _I know, Emile._ ” Logan interrupted, voice clipped. “ _Emile-_ ”

“Okay but did you do it? Are you in a safe place?”

“ _Emile!_ ”

“Were you able to get any supplies together? What about your boyfriends? You were visiting them this week right?”

“ _...Emile._ ”

“Your hometown is pretty small right? I mean compared to Orlando. I don’t think the blast radius would be too big so you should be fine as long as-”

“ _Emile I have no idea what you’re saying._ ” Logan cut in again, bordering on desperate. “ _Please slow down._ ”

Emile forced himself to take in a breath, pulling to a stop on the side of the country road, vision too fuzzy to continue at the moment. “Sorry, sorry. I just worried you wouldn’t make it. I- you are safe, right? Orlando was up in flames in minutes, I doubt many people made it out. I was already out of the city, of course. I… news is sketchy with official sources up in smoke, but for the moment the internet is still functioning, and from social media it seems the execution was flawless. In a few hours we’ll lose all connection.”

A moment of quiet.

“ _Oh,_ ” was all Logan said.

Emile wiped his eyes. Now was not the time to grieve for people who had been sentenced to death years ago. “You are in a safe place, right, Logan? What about your boyfriends? Are they with you?”

“ _I, um… Yes, we are… far enough, I think. We can’t see town anymore._ ”

“That’s good. You’re not just in your car are you? Are you actually some _where_?”

Logan paused, the familiar thinking-hum of his buzzing softly in Emile’s ear. “ _Yeah. We’re at the Somnum farm. Do you think…?_ ”

“One moment,” Emile pulled his phone away from his ear, opening his GPS and finding the said Somnum farm to be a little over eleven miles from the nearest town. “Yes, you’re clear.” He tucked the phone back into his shoulder. “If you’re able to stay there awhile, I can come meet you. Once things start to settle safety will come in numbers.”

“ _Alright,_ ” Logan said, no hesitation whatsoever. “ _That makes sense… be careful, alright?_ ”

“I will.” Emile promised. “I’m still not far out from Orlando but I’m coming, okay? I don’t know how much longer the phones will work, so I’m staying on course even if we lose contact.”

Logan hummed an affirmative, and the line went dead.

Emile let the phone slide into his lap, heart pounding.

Logan was alive! Alive! Emile had really hoped Logan would make it, be able to help him in the aftermath of the end, but he’d more or less accepted that such a hope was far fetched considering Logan’s hard grasp of reality.

Emile couldn’t blame him, it’s not as though he had any solid proof to offer his friend, and Logan wasn’t one for just believing what he was told.

What could Emile have said?

“ _Hey Logan, I sometimes have weird dreams that predict the future and because of this I now know that the apocalypse is gonna happen sometime at the end of next year_ ”? Yeah, no.

“Get it together, Emile.” He muttered, tossing his phone into the passenger seat and putting the car back into gear. “We’ve got things to do.”

\-------

Roman was… antsy, to put it lightly.

Though he hadn't seen his twin in years, Remus didn’t seem to have changed a bit. He was just as over the top, just as chaotic, just as tactless as ever, and the fact that he was still hanging with his troublesome high school pals wasn’t encouraging.

For the moment Virgil wasn’t much of a concern. For one, the guy was unconscious, and for two, as far as Roman knew Virgil was more of a computer kind of person. Not too much of a physical threat, at least… Roman hoped he wasn’t.

No, the real problem was Janus. Janus; smooth, mysterious, evil-mastermind-vibes Janus. Janus, who Roman had absolutely no background on.

The man definitely had his hands in some dirty stuff, but what it was Roman had no clue, and the fact Janus seemed to so effortlessly erase evidence just gave Roman the sensation of tiny spiders running up his back. The guy’s eerie glass eyes, trailing along just slightly out of sync with his real one, only added to the feeling.

To top it all off, when he and Remy had followed Remus back to the van, Janus had been crouched in the back with the side door open with two handguns. What the hell had those three gotten into that Janus just… carried firearms on him? What was even happening anymore?

It should have ended there. Remus and his caravan of problems driving off into the sunset and leaving Roman to sort out the end of the world with people who were actually sane, but _no_ , it couldn’t be that easy, _could it_?

No, Virgil had chosen that moment to collapse bonelessly, partway out the passenger window, and Remy - sassy, sarcastic, not-dealing-with-that-shit Remy had decided then would be a good time to wedge generosity somewhere in that overly-eccentric personality of his.

And so here they all were, crowded in the Somnum’s living room as the sun slowly rose.

Remy had somehow gotten Janus to agree to leave his firearms in the van, though Roman was pretty sure Janus was still armed, as he had agreed far too easily to not be suspicious.

Everything was quiet, and had been for the past hour or so. 

Remus had carried Virgil in the house and set him on the sofa with a softness that honestly surprised Roman. Janus had sat next to him and was holding one of Virgil’s hands in both of his own.

Roman took note of both things - if his brother and the snake had a soft spot for the emo, that was definitely something he could try to use when things inevitably went wrong.

The sun was officially above the horizon now; Remy’s grandmother stood from her armchair with a scowl.

“Is everything alright, Ms. Somnum?” Logan asked, standing as well from his place on the floor.

“I just don’t like this sittin’ around.” She huffed and shoved her socked feet into her boots rather aggressivily. “Sun’s up and internet’s out. I’m’a drive to the edge ‘a town and see what there’s to see.”

Remy stood at that, eyes wide. “Grandma, what are you thinking? It could be dangerous still!”

“What am I thinkin’?” The woman snorted, crossing to the door and pulling a coat off the rack beside it. “I’m thinkin’ that if thing’s ‘ave settled anyone still there could use a hand. And it won’t hurt to know what the hell happened out there.”

“Grandma-”

“Aw, don’t try bossin’ me boy.” The front door was already opening, and she was out on the porch as they all just blinked at her in various levels of concern. “Ya keep these boys from killin’ each other ‘til I’m back.”

Logan took a tentative step towards the door. “Ms. Somnum, I am not sure it is wise to-”

“Be back soon kids!”

The door was closed with more force then necessary, and the silence was abruptly resumed.

An old engine roared to life outside, and tires screeched in gravel, but the sound faded quickly.

Roman looked to Remy, who was simply standing there in shock. He tried to think of something to say, but Janus’ expression caught his eye.

Janus was also staring at the door, but his lips were pressed thin and his brows pinched. It was a small movement, but Roman still caught the way Janus’s right thumb was now tapping lightly on Virgil’s knuckles where it had been still before.

What even was that face? Nervousness? No, that didn’t fit.

Roman couldn’t help himself. “Janus,” he said, immediately drawing all eyes to him. “What are you thinking?”

Janus stared right into his eyes, searching, but for what Roman didn’t know. Everything was too quiet for too long. Finally Janus’ eyes flicked to Remy, and that pinched expression was back.

“Nothing of importance,” he said softly, eyes still locked with Remy.

Remus shifted where he was lounging in the kitchen doorway. “Hate to agree with my dear brother, but if it wasn’t important you wouldn’t be making that face Jan. Come on, what’d ya see?”

Janus scowled then, shooting Remus a glare. “If I don’t speak there’s a reason, you fool. I’m not going to have us at each other’s throats any more than necessary.”

Roman didn’t like the sound of that in the slightest, but the bite in Janus’ voice had him mentally backstepping.

Unfortunately, Janus was right. There was no point in starting a fight if they could help it.

Fine then. He would drop it. But he was _definitely_ keeping an eye on Janus.

He locked eyes with the man, hoping to transfer the message. The look Janus was giving in return was impossible to decipher, but it seemed to read along the lines of, ‘ _Leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone_ ’. Roman supposed he could work with that.

“Odd.” Logan commented, eyes not on either of them but instead on Grandma Somnum’s empty armchair.

Everyone looked to Logan now.

“What?” Patton spoke from his seat against the coffee table, voice small and eyes wide.

Logan gestured to the armchair. “She left her shotgun. I would have expected her to take it with her, given how attached to it she seems.”

Roman glanced back to Janus, who had closed his eyes in something akin to a wince and was taking a deep, deliberate breath.

Wherever this was going, Roman didn’t like it, not one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i guess emile is psychic now. oops


End file.
